Kawasaki Racing Team’s Gautier Paulin obtained the first overall victory of the 2013 FIM Motocross Championship this weekend at round five in Sevlievo, Bulgaria.

The French rider, who also won last year at Sevlievo, dominated the qualifying race Saturday and the first race Sunday, but in the second moto he crossed the finish line second behind Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Antonio Cairoli.

Paulin explained that he could not pass the Italian, but he was very for having been able to race behind Cairoli during all the heat. Paulin is now determined to keep on working hard in order to try to stop the Italian and keep on fighting for the Championship now that he is up to the second position in the point standings.

Cairoli did not have a good qualifying race Saturday, but Sunday he succeeded in finishing second overall with a 4-1 result. In the first race the Italian had a good start, but in the first corner Maximilian Nagl pushed him to the outside and he was down to the seventh position.

The red plate holder rode the first half of the heat behind Nagl, but once he overtook him he gave chase to Searle who was riding fourth. In the end Cairoli overtook the British rider and ended the heat in fourth.

The Italian had another great start in the second race, but this time he managed to be second in the first corner behind Paulin and he quickly made the pass over the French rider and led the race until the checkered flag.

Rockstar Energy Suzuki World’s Clement Desalle was back on the podium this weekend after finishing third in both races. After two great starts Desalle had to battle with his teammate Strijbos to finish on the podium; while in the first race Desalle could not overtake Strijbos, in the second one Desalle finished in front of his teammate.

Desalle admitted that in the first race he made several mistakes which made him lose some ground with Strijbos and after exchanging the second position several times, Desalle could only finish third.

Rockstar Energy Suzuki World’s Kevin Strijbos missed the podium this weekend being tight in 40 points with his teammate Desalle, but he was very satisfied for having finished third in the first race. However, Strijbos was a little disappointed with his fourth position in the second race because a problem in his goggles stopped him to fight for the third position, every time that he was closing the gap with the Desalle, a lot of sand was getting into his eyes.

Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jeremy Van Horebeek obtained the best result of the season this weekend finishing fifth overall. In the first race the Belgian rider started down in eighth and he rode behind Philippaerts most of the heat, but in the last laps Van Horebeek closed the gap, overtook the Italian and crossed the finish line seventh. In the second race Van Horebeek had a better start and he was riding fifth comfortably until he was overtaken by De Dycker and had to settle down with the sixth place.

Tommy Searle started third in the first race, but he lost one position with Desalle after a couple of laps. The British rider gave it all to keep such position until the end, but he could not stop Cairoli to overtake him and he ended fifth. In the second race he started seventh and when he was trying to overtake Van Horebeek he made a mistake and went down to fifteenth. In the end Searle crossed the finish line eighth and finished sixth overall of the Grand Prix.

It was not an easy weekend for Ken De Dycker who struggled with his starts and could only finish ninth in the first race. In the second one, he did an incredible recovery moving from eleventh to fifth, which gave him the overall seventh position. De Dycker has gone from second to fourth in the point standings, but he is only six points behind Desalle who is third at the moment.

David Philippaerts obtained an overall eighth position, followed by Max Nagl and Davide Guarneri.